Tisch brothers get $7.5M in all-star funds for app

Spring, a commerce app from Silicon Alley celebs David and Alan Tisch, has completed a Series A funding round led by David's venture capital firm and LVMH.

The Tisch brothers have named and funded their newest venture with a little help from their friends, the top venture capitalists of Silicon Alley.

After leaving his role as managing director at TechStars NYC last year, David Tisch got busy, founding his own venture firm, Box Group, and partnering with his brother Alan on a startup they named JelloLabs, which they vaguely announced would be producing a commerce app. That app will be called Spring, and it has received $7.5 million in Series A funding in a round led by Box Group and Groupe Arnault, the venture fund operation of luxury goods corporation LVMH. Other backers read like a "Who’s who" of the Silicon Alley venture scene: Gary Vaynerchuk, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Thrive Capital and Google Ventures.

Not much detail is known about what Spring is or what it will look like, but the participation of Groupe Arnault in the funding round conveys a sense that higher-end retail will be part of its model. The list of other investors shows that, outside of the Tisch name, many along the Alley see promise in what they have heard.

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Spring's entry on the capital-funding site AngelList is rather obtuse. "Spring is on a mission to create the world's best Mobile Shopping experience," it reads. "To do this, we are assembling a family of great engineers, designers, and problem solvers."

Both Tisch brothers are themselves NYC tech scene veterans. Aside from David's aforementioned resume, Alan worked at Michael Bloomberg's City Hall, where he helped launch both the NYC Big Apps competition and the 311 app. Mssrs. Tisch are also members of one of New York's most powerful families. Their uncles Andrew and James Tisch are respectively co-chairman and CEO of the Loews Corporation (both men are also members of Crain's "200 Most Connected New Yorkers" list), and their cousin Jessica Tisch was a Crain's "40 Under 40" in 2013.